1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electrolytic cells and more particularly to an electrolytic cell wherein at least one group of electrodes is arranged so that one electrode is located at the center of an equilateral hexagon and the other electrodes are located to apexes of the hexagon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of electrolytic cells have heretofore been developed as electrolysis apparatuses, and in most of these known electrolytic cells, plate electrodes are disposed in the cell and the size of the cell has often to be enlarged. Further, in electrolytic cells including plate electrodes, stagnation of electrolytic solutions is readily caused and substances formed by electrolysis are deposited and accumulated on the electrodes. Accordingly, the conventional electrolytic cells still involve problems to be solved.
For example, when sodium hypochlorite to be used for the sterilization treatment is prepared by electrolysis of sea water, the following defects are observed if conventional electrolytic cells are used.
A liquid chlorine injecting method has heretofore been most popular as the method for sterilization of water, but this method involves problems as regards the safety and running cost. Accordingly, a method including directly eletrolyzing sea water to form sodium hypochlorite and injecting the so formed hypochlorite into water to effect the sterilization treatment has now attracted attention in the art and this method is in practical use in some plants. However, when sea water is directly electrolyzed by using conventional electrolytic cells, the efficiency of generation of chlorine is not sufficiently high and during the operation, magnesium hydroxide is deposited on electrodes, especially cathodes and the deposited magnesium hydroxide grows and finally clogs the cell. Moreover, in order to treat a large quantity of sea water at a high efficiency, the size of the cell must inevitably be large.